Pantasya ni Tami Review – Azi Acosta, Zia Zamora, Erica Balagtas (2/10)
Here’s my Pantasya ni Tami review which stars Azi Acosta, Ali Asistio, Jiad Arroyo, Shiena Yu, Zia Zamora, Erica Balagtas, PJ Rosario, Justin MC, Mhack Morales, Mikhael Padua, PJ Abellana, Shirley Fuentes. The film is now streaming on Vivamax and is directed by Topel Lee & Easy Ferrer!
Here’s the trailer:
So basically the film is about this demure cosplayer Tami who gets scouted by a predator / pervtographer and enticed into gravure and NSFW as well as entering a sexual relationship with him. She gets famous and rich real fast but eventually gets her sex video leaked after calling off her relation to pervtographer Ken. And that is because she’s fallen in love with a more sincere guy. During the course of Tami’s sulking in her unit, it’s also revealed that pervtographer has been blackmailing former top cosplayer Coleen for sex. When the two band together they not only cancel Ken but its kind of implied that he got arrested. The film ends with Tami reconciling with her estranged stepmother and brother and opening a new studio that she promises to be a safe space for cosplayers.
Pretty generic plot to be honest but here’s my take. It can hit hard for a lot of people especially the ones in the cosplay community whether they want to admit it or not. Abuse and pervs are also a prevalent issue and this is reflected here.
So what pissed off people?
So what really pisses people off, especially cosplayers, is the fact that the writers and Vivamax just used the whole idea of cosplaying as a way of making sex scenes with one of Viva’s hot talents right now, Azi Acosta. For a lot of people, it’s a big diss on the community they are striving hard to keep clean and safe for newbies and veterans alike. There was a funny comment about Vivamax looking for the next community they would be making a sex-drama movie about the first being the MMA community with a film called “BJJ” and then this one.
Yes, I have to agree the trailer highlighted all the steamy sex for the film which did one of two things depending on who’s seeing it. It could hype up the film as another mindless sex-drama revolving around the world of cosplaying and cosplayers touching on more mature topics like gravure and NSFW contents. Then there’s another side that all out hatin’ the film from the trailer and the depiction of cosplayers; sort of giving the normies the impression that ALL cosplayers are like that in conventions (side note you horndogs, that’s definitely not the case).
Pantasya ni Tami is meh to OK if you ask me. Fuck the awful trailer because it’s a stark portrayal of *some* cosplayers lives and past experiences. It also depicts almost everything that cosplayers endure every time they wear that costume and go out in character. Even those that do NSFW content, they *might* be a little more understanding if they get past the that shitshow of a trailer. The plot was very contrived and very predictable but at least they gave a happy ending. There was this Vivamax anthology series that really bothered me for a day or two with the ending and all and it also involves a leaked sex scandal. The point is, it dealt with real world topics and situations and they presented “A” solution. It’s a sing-song one but it still left a somewhat positive note.
But yeah, the trailer is dogshit awful. Still, the film’s writing doesn’t excuse the writer and director from getting flak for writing such dated concepts and terms. They do get a pass for being able to show audiences the sexual harassment and emotional turmoil they experience and that beautiful feeling of being recognized and appreciated in a convention. I’m 50/50 on whether to call them out for researching or not because the terms they used were so dated.
The sex scenes were cringe also especially the ones with the cosplaying stuff. Fucking made me hate Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. And did we really need another actress to do the sex scenes other than to promote her up? We could have just stuck with Azi.
Also the acting’s bland. There were actually some moments that I kinda zoned out because of the dialogue, the delivery or the acting. But I still tip my hat to Acosta who continues to show her improvement in acting, give her a damn good material to work on and some serious workshop and Viva might have a legit winner in the future. For now though, I kinda understand the route she’s taking to gain popularity which is a neat reflection of her character in this film. Most of the cast had a range of meh to “OK” too. The main baddie here, Ken played was Jiad Arroyo was good because he had a punchable face which worked for his character.
You know what, Vivamax needs to redo some of their films and cut out all the adult scenes and just turn those into episodes for an anthology series or a focus on a specific director or actress.
Verdict: 2/10
